Atomic Heart is a first-person shooter which pits you against some deadly robots. Naturally, it would be unfair to not give you something to even the odds. This comes in the form of the excellent roster of weapons you get to use against them.

Unlike other FPS games, guns won’t be your only weapons. Almost half the weapons are actually melee weapons. The game has a strong focus on melee combat, including a very-fun dodging mechanism which makes these encounters throb your heart.

But with so many options, you might be wondering which ones are the best. To be honest, each weapon handles slightly differently. So other than the stats, the way you prefer to play will have a big impact. That being said, some of them are better than others and I’ll tell you why I prefer those ones in this list.

12. Fox

Starting the list, here’s the weapon that you won’t use. Or at least, I don’t use. 

Generally, I prefer using one-handed weapons. It lets me keep a hand free for other stuff. But this is one case where I can’t abide by that.

Let’s look at the good stuff first. Fox does the same amount of damage as Swede, and has almost double the attack speed. That means higher damage per second. It also builds up energy faster. So what’s the problem?

The range. In any other games, it wouldn’t be a problem. But in Atomic Heart, you can’t afford to get that up close and personal. With the amount of dodging you’ll be doing, it just doesn’t make sense. Unless you’re actually comfortable with that playstyle, I can’t recommend this.

11. PM

The PM is your basic pistol. It’s as basic as it gets, until you upgrade it. It deals a decent amount of damage, which is great against weaker enemies. 

During the early-game, you might want to hang onto this one. Weapons and ammo are both scarce. And even when you get better weapons, you might want to keep it. 

Upgrading it will let you deal more damage. And you can use this for the small fries. Leaving your more powerful weapons for tougher enemies.

10. Swede

Every game has a starter weapon. Bioshock gives you a wrench and Half-Life has its iconic Crowbar. While the Swede won't go down in gaming history, it's still a useful and memorable weapon. And the way your character pulls it out of the concrete was pretty cool.

The swede is your standard middle-ground weapon. It takes both hands to use and deals an average amount of damage. Eventually, you’ll have opportunities to upgrade its damage output. And you can play around with different types of power attacks as well.

Eventually you’ll switch to one of the other weapons. Perhaps the one-handed Pashtet or one of the other two powerhouses. Until then, this will be a good companion.

9. Snowball

I’m going to be completely honest. I actually don’t know how to feel about this one. On one hand, Snowball hits hard. Whether you use the light or heavy attack, you are guaranteed to deal a lot of damage.

But there are drawbacks. The first is range. I’ll use the same argument I used for Fox. It makes it difficult to avoid enemies and you can also find yourself easily trapped. And the time it takes to charge makes it hard to use.

That being said, I did have fun using it. There’s just something about mowing down enemies while ramming into them. Even if it costs you energy. 

Overall though, there are better weapons. Even for the slow-swinging, high damage playstyles.

8. Railgun

With a name like Raingun, you know this thing is powerful. Railguns are actually a real thing, by the way. They use electromagnetic pulses to shoot projectiles at high speeds. The real life things are very large, though.

The game’s version is a gun you can carry, and it is an energy weapon. This thing is very powerful and will do a ton of damage. The basic attack is cool, but charge it up and you will cause a lot of destruction.

There are several problems, though. The first is that by the time you get this, you’ll already be in the late-game. The other thing is the charge time. You might not even get the time to charge it up, especially against faster opponents. More often than not, I’d probably just use Dominator instead.

7. Zvezdochka

So let’s talk about the best two-handed weapon in the game, shall we? Nothing is perfect, and neither is the Zvevdochka. But it’s beautiful, and I had a lot of fun playing with it. And that name! What a mouthful!

This is the most powerful melee weapon in the game. Hands down. A hit with this one can crack a normal person’s head. And most of the robots will go down comparatively easier. The range of this isn’t special, same as Swede and Pashtet. But considering how powerful this already is, that might have tipped the odds a little.

The only thing you should be worried about is the charge speed. Man, that can take forever. Otherwise I would have ranked it higher. And the swing speed is a factor too. The flying-blade heavy attack is also a hit-or-miss kinda thing. You either will get a lot out of it, or nothing.

6. Dominator

Even though the Dominator does less damage than the Railgun, I think it is overall a better energy weapon. The damage output is pretty considerable. And add that to the high rate of fire, and you have a powerful weapon on your hands.

The Dominator is best used against large groups of enemies. Think of this as a crowd control tool. It can also unleash a powerful EMP, but that will consume all your energy.

I personally recommend keeping this one around, but picking when to use it. If you find yourself in a pickle, you can easily bring this out and get out of there. Or just destroy them all. It’s called Dominator for a reason, after all. 

5. Fat Boy

Ah, the classic RPG. An FPS isn't complete without one, is it? Sometime during the mid-game, you'll find the blueprint for this heavy hitter. And you'll need it too.

You will find a lot of use out of this. Whether you're going up against your typical Lab Techs, Bumblebees or large bosses. The only ones who seem to fare better are the agile ones. You probably know who I’m talking about.

The only reason I'm not putting this higher is because, well, it's an RPG. As useful and powerful as it is, you'll only use it under certain circumstances. The ones that I put higher are the ones you can always rely on.

4. Pashtet

Now we’re getting into the meat of things. Pashtet is this meat cleaver with sawtooths and a bunch of other scary looking things. If the design isn’t reassuring, just try it out. I’m telling you, it’s the best melee weapon in the game. This thing swings fast, has a good range and does a lot of damage!

Faster swing speed counts for a lot. You can hit things left and right while dashing and dodging. And you can dish out a lot of damage. Speaking of speed and damage, this weapon charges up pretty fast too. And the charged attack hits hard!

Since you’ll be hitting a lot of enemies, you’ll also build up your energy. And you know what that means? That’s right, unlimited energy weapon ammo. You can pretty much switch between the two seamlessly. But do take note, the Flying Blade upgrade will consume energy instead.

3. KS-23

For something you get so early on, the KS-23 is very powerful. Of course, getting it early doesn’t mean it should be obsolete later. The upgrade system ensures that anything can be deadly. Still, it’s basically the first gun you get your hands on.

Initially you won’t use it much, because bullets are scarce. But when upgraded and used against bosses, this bad boy packs quite the punch. Once you’ve gotten a hang for crafting, you should have enough bullets.

Since it’s a shotgun, naturally it’ll do the most damage when close by. It is still quite effective at picking out flying drones from a distance, but I recommend other weapons for that. Why waste bullets? 

2. Electro

As far as energy weapons go, this is hands down the best one. According to the lore, this was developed for non-lethal use. But your usage against robots and other monstrosities will be lethal enough.

The electric pulse this shoots is pretty powerful. For a weapon that is handed to you pretty early on, it packs quite the punch. Besides the high damage output, you can upgrade it to shoot an EMP. Of course, that will consume all your energy.

Speaking of energy, this gun essentially has infinite ammo. It consumes your energy, which builds up when you attack enemies. You can clobber them with a melee weapon and then unleash hell with Electro.

1. Kalash

I don’t want to stereotype, but Kalash has to take the top spot. It’s your classic AK-47, trusty and reliable. Except with a sci-fi twist to it, coming in the form of upgrades. 

The weapon handles quite well. The bullets themselves don’t do quite a lot of damage, but the high rate of fire means you deal out a lot. You’ll find the blueprint during the early-mid-game period, so you can start shooting enemies with this one.

Like most of the weapons, you can easily customize it for robots or organics. The weapon has a decent bit of recoil. As long as you don’t hold down the button for too long, you’ll be fine.

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